NYPD officer charged with multiple felonies for unlawful arrest of New York Times photographer

The New York City police officer that arrested a New York Times photographer has been indicted on three felony counts and five misdemeanor counts for fabricating the cause of the arrest.

Officer Michael Ackermann, 30, was charged with tampering with
public records, falsifying business records, official misconduct
and making a false written statement, police told CBS New York.
If convicted, he faces termination from his job at the NYPD. If
convicted of the most serious charge alone – tampering with
evidence – he faces up to seven years in prison.

On August 4, 2012, Ackermann arrested
44-year-old Robert Stolarik, a New York Times photographer who
was taking pictures of a police response to a fight in the
Councourse neighborhood of the Bronx.

Police were arresting a teenage girl who was involved in the
fight and asked Stolarik to stop taking photos. Stolarik
identified himself as a Times journalist and continued snapping
pictures. Suddenly another officer grabbed the camera and slammed
it into his face, the photojournalist said at the time. He said
he was assaulted, pushed forward and kicked in the back, which
resulted in scrapes and bruises on his body and face. He was then
handcuffed and thrown in jail, while his equipment – valued at
$18,000 – was confiscated.

“Officers took me down and dragged me; I don’t have any
internal injuries or broken bones, but it feels like I did,”
Stolarik, a former war correspondent, told the Village Voice
after the incident.

“I can’t even believe they have any justification for what
they did,” he added. “I was treated with more respect in
the worst places than I was in this situation. It’s unbelievable
to fear for your life in your own city.”

Stolarik was later charged for obstructing government
administration by repeatedly using his flash and “violently”
resisting arrest by harming the officer with his camera. In
response, the photographer argued that his camera may have
“inadvertently” hit the police officer, but that he did not
respond intentionally in a violent manner.

This month, the court sided with the newspaper photographer.
Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnsonon Monday
announced that according to a probe by prosecutors and the NYPD’s
Internal Affairs Bureau, the photographer never used his flash
and did not even have one on his camera at the time of the
incident. No witnesses reported seeing a flash and the photos
taken during the arrest showed that no flash had been used.
Officer Ackermann was arraigned for fabricating details about the
incident. The NYPD officer was charged with three felony counts
and five misdemeanor counts, and all charges against the
photographer were dropped.

“We are pleased that officials in the Bronx took a serious
look at this case and brought an indictment after finding police
misconduct,” said Abbe Serphos, a New York Times spokeswoman.
“We remain troubled that the arrest of the photographer,
Robert Stolarik, was made in the first place.”

Officer Ackermann has been released on a personal recognizance
bond pending the outcome of the case.